Labels:

Anybody miss the Walgreen's? Remember the one or two story Walgreen's that had been on the corner, across from Marshall Field's for something like 89 years?

They knocked it down and said the thing on the left was coming. MoMo by Booth Hansen.

Well, now it's going up. On that great street State Street, between Marshall Fields/Macy's and the Chicago Theater. Artist's rendering on the left. Photos taken today below.

Such large windows on State Street take some getting used to. But large panes of glass are good I say. The industrial metal framing of the building and the windows is also a shock on State. The Chicago Theater is terra cotta. Field's/Macy's is neoclassical stone, with four marble columns at the entrance.

But I think it's a shock we'll get used to. And a shock well done.

Here's a view of the side, along the alley, facing the Chicago Theater.

And we've yet to see what the hole in the middle of the building will look like. You can kind of see it in the rendering above. See it, just to the right of the CHICAGO sign?

Well I'm glad it's there. For me that opening will always signify the puckered open mouth of the man on the billboard that used to sit atop the Walgreens. It was a cigarette ad for Chesterfields, or Lucky Strikes? Whatever brand it was, the billboard was on an angle atop the Walgreens, and people would gather below and look up and wait. And every so often, the big smoker on the billboard, blew perfect cigarette smoke rings out of his mouth.

I used to wait and watch for that with my father. I'm sure little boys will look at the opening in MoMo and say to their Dads - "Cool!"